Greetings, fintech enthusiasts and gurus, there鈥檚 something important we need to talk about.
Accessibility.
We see ramps for wheelchairs, Braille signs, and more and more people are learning ASL. That鈥檚 a great start, but unfortunately, there鈥檚 something we鈥檙e neglecting:聽digital听补肠肠别蝉蝉颈产颈濒颈迟测.
Today, we鈥檒l discuss ways to improve your UX. And, as a treat, we鈥檒l take a look at a financial charting library that has covered many of the points we鈥檒l talk about.
Why Is It Important?
The human race has long abandoned the only-the-strong-survive mentality. If the world can adapt to disabilities, so can your UX.
Of course, your main goal is to expand your audience and make people with disabilities feel welcome.
Those improvements, however, will also benefit traders, financial news providers, investment advisors, and more!
Here鈥檚 how to do it:
Keyboard Navigation
A good way to introduce your product to people with motor disabilities (cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, damaged limbs, etc.) would be to add keyboard-accessible actions.
Analysts also use a dozen of buttons: selecting trading instruments, changing timeframes and chart types, applying various indicators, the list is truly endless. So, this is actually useful for the bigger part of your userbase. Most people multitask and having shortcuts will certainly make life easier for them.
Your keyboard should enable you to:
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Change settings
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Zoom in and out
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Take screenshots
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Switch between instruments, chart types and layouts
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Navigate templates and edit them
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Place orders
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Change positions
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Customize studies
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽袝xpand and collapse panels
So, do you want to see it in action?
Of course, you do. Recently, the聽聽financial charting libraries got an update focused on accessibility and we鈥檙e going to聽look into that:
Here鈥檚 what we鈥檙e seeing:
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽By hitting TAB, users move to the next element.
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽To go back, they can use the LShift + TAB key combination.
–聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽Arrow Up or Down moves the chart – you guessed it! – up or down.
Another good example:
It鈥檚 truly never been easier to manage an order!
Hit Space/Enter聽to enable the selection. Ctrl + E will allow you to edit a study with a scripting language. In case you need to remove periods, layouts, indicator templates, and your own studies, all you have to do is hit Delete.
Tapped on anything during analysis by accident? No worries, Ctrl + Z allows you to undo your action.
That鈥檚 just the tip of the iceberg – explore or find your own shortcuts by testing their tool.
Alt Text
While it is definitely true that visual content is widely preferred, it鈥檚 hardly inclusive. That鈥檚 where text alternatives come to the rescue.
Screen readers will be able to read out loud the description of your image or video to any visually impaired party interested in it.
Added bonus – it鈥檚 a great addition to your SEO strategy!
Simplified UX
There鈥檚 one thing that users hate: cluttered apps.
No matter what type of software you鈥檙e promoting, it should be intuitive. Beginners want to be able to navigate it quickly, and fintech pros don鈥檛 like their time wasted on pointless controls.
Here鈥檚 a good example, again from DXcharts:
The main information is at the centre of the screen, and all additional controls are available either in the side menu or above the chart.
Zero clutter. Just how everyone likes it.
In addition, you should avoid including animations or loud noises. Those can trigger seizures in sensitive people. Also, consider dyslexia-friendly fonts. This is a widely underestimated issue and if you want to expand your audience, you need to take as many people as possible into account.
To Sum Up
The core of every good relationship is to make the other person鈥檚 life easier.
It鈥檚 no different when it comes to your users, students, or partners. Whether disabled or just busy, we can all benefit from better accessibility.
The good news:
There鈥檚 already a solution for traders, brokers, and anyone entering the fintech scene which focuses on both that and quality. DXcharts offer financial charting libraries – ready-made scripts that will supercharge your app. Besides the keyboard shortcuts that we already discussed, the charts support screen readers. Few great steps in the right direction!
I invite you to check out the DXcharts demo – it鈥檚 highly unlikely that you鈥檒l ever look back.
